Together
by Haberdashing
Summary: Set in the Transcendence AU (transcendence-au on tumblr). Two siblings navigate the murky underside of a post-Transcendence city.
1. Chapter 1

Two teenagers walked side by side on grimy sidewalks lit by dim, flickering streetlights, their footsteps beating out a pattern that echoed across the desolate city streets. The boy's eyes swerved from side to side, searching the streets for any sign of danger, while the girl held a small plastic bag and hummed a tune that neither of them could quite place.

As the two reached the corner of the street and stopped, glancing in both directions for cars despite knowing that the odds of spotting one were slim to none at this time of night, the girl abruptly halted her humming and turned towards the boy, her curl-filled ponytail swishing from side to side.

"You're such a worrywart, Ty."

Ty sighed and turned towards the girl. "It's creepy out here, okay? We shouldn't even be out here in the first place. It's not safe. _Somebody _should know that not dying trumps getting first crack at a new batch of Smile Dip."

"We're not going to die, bro-bro." The boy broke out into a smile despite his best efforts at hearing his sister's affectionate title for him. She patted him on the head- no easy feat given that he towered over her by several inches- and ruffled the tightly-wound curls which lay atop it. "And I haven't had Smile Dip for _years_! I couldn't risk having it run out!"

Ty shook his head, equally amused and concerned at his sister's over-the-top focus on getting candy. He could recall every detail of her last encounter with Smile Dip, and involuntarily shuddered at the thought of having to deal with that level of chaos once more. "Fine. But if something happens, don't say I didn't warn you."

"Whatever." She stuck her tongue out at him as they crossed the empty street. The girl started to trail her brother by a few steps, and he was too focused on scanning the streets for any signs of life to notice that she had fallen behind.

"Boo!"

Startled, Ty lost his balance and fell to the ground, scraping his hand on the bumps of the sidewalk. A quick glance upwards revealed that the source of the unexpected noise was none other than his sister, who was now wearing a wide grin.

"I'm the boogeyman! Booga booga booga!" She waved her hands around in mid-air as he stood back up.

"Don't _do _that!"

"Did I _scare _you?" His sister's toothy grin only grew wider. "Were you scared of the big bad boogeyman, Ty-Ty?"

The boy sighed and put his hand up to his forehead, shaking his hand and laughing gently to himself. "You're such a dork."

"I know you are, but what am I?" The girl resumed her humming and skipped happily along the sidewalk, and the boy grudgingly resumed his walk alongside her.

A few minutes and several city blocks later, Ty turned down the corner, wrinkling his nose as he noticed that multiple streetlights on the next street were flickering rapidly, while others had gone out entirely. It figured.

After a few quick footsteps, the boy noticed that he no longer heard his sister's humming or the sound of her steady skipping behind him.

He rolled his eyes. "I'm not falling for this again, Lea."

Though Ty waited several seconds for a reply, none came, and the sudden silence that surrounded him, so great that he could hear the buzzing of the few working streetlights and the murmurs that leaked through the flimsy walls of the surrounding apartments, made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

"Knock it off! This isn't funny anymore!" The boy fervently wished that the high-pitched wavering of his voice didn't give away his fear to her as much as it did to himself. It probably did, though. After fifteen years of growing up together, the two siblings knew each other almost as well as they knew themselves. She knew his every emotion, his every weakness, and doubtlessly this moment would be no exception.

Finally, Ty turned around to face his trailing sister. "Lea…"

He had not been expecting his sister to be on the ground and covered up by a burlap sack, or for her to be surrounded by a sizeable group of hooded figures who now turned to face him, stepping menacingly towards him, their faces and figures cloaked by the long shadows formed by the missing lights.

A rough, low voice shouted, "A witness! Grab him!"

Several strong arms grabbed his own, and though the boy tried to escape their grasp, their combined force was too great for him to resist. The boy was bound by heavy ropes, thrown roughly into a sack, and picked up by a multitude of hands. The world was dark now, but he could still hear the flickering of the streetlights and a series of murmurs that he had too quickly dismissed as he was taken away.

For once in his life, Ty realized, his paranoia had failed him. And now both he and his sister were about to pay the price.

The click of a lock opening, and a door slowly screeching open. A few bumps as he descended down a flight of stairs. A cold, wet floor as he was placed on the ground. And then, the movement stopped, and the rustle of fervent motion began.

"Lea." Ty whispered under his breath. "Are you there?"

Seconds passed, or minutes, or years. Ty could hear his heartbeat pounding, feel every unsteady breath as he soaked in the moist air surrounding him.

Finally, a muffled response came from his right side. "I'm here, Ty-Ty."

She was here. The boy smiled weakly. He had half-hoped that he would not get a response, that she would have escaped… and yet, hearing her voice comforted him. Whatever this was, they would face it together. And while they were side by side, he had faith that there was nothing the two couldn't handle.

He could faintly hear the noise of chanting, and as he took a deep breath, the boy noticed that the room reeked of mold and chalk and smoke and… was that _cinnamon_?

A few words spoken by the hooded figures were loud enough to reach his ears.

"I am sure that Lord Alcor will be most pleased with our offering."

"But what if the police come after us because of the missing kids?"

A gruff laugh. "Please. A couple of kids like _them_? I bet it won't even make the local news."

The scratching of chalk against concrete. Chalk dust tickled his nose, making the boy sneeze. His sister laughed quietly, and he groaned as he thought of her usual comments regarding his unmasculine sneezing.

"Is the summoning circle ready?"

"Almost. Do you have the knife?"

"Yes, and I made sure to clean it well after last time." _Last time_. Just the sound of those words gave the boy a pit in his stomach.

Finally, his heart pounding, the boy spoke up, desperate to use the only weapon he had left, his words, to secure some modicum of control over the situation. "Did you say you're summoning Alcor?"

"I don't see why _you _would care, boy, but yes. We know the power of Lord Alcor the Dreambender and hope that he will honor and respect us as greatly as we honor and respect him." The words were stated calmly, solemnly.

"And… you're using cinnamon-scented candles?"

"Well, yes. Their flames shall fill our Lord with light and flame, the fire outside reflecting the fire within him."

The boy took a deep breath. The smoke and chalk dust still made his nose and throat tickle, and he could hear his sister coughing, a noise that somehow scared him as much as the impending sacrifice. "Alcor prefers unscented candles. And if you're trying to summon a demon who answers only the strongest of calls, you'd better get every detail that you can right." His statement was punctuated, much to his chagrin, by another unmanly sneeze.

The cultist laughed darkly. "And what would a mere child like you know of the great and powerful Alcor?"

"I've read all the demonology books in my school library and then some. Go ahead, look it up if you don't believe me."

The commotion paused, replaced by the lone sound of book pages being flipped through. A minute or two went by before one of the cultists finally spoke up. "It looks like he's right."

Somebody sighed. "Replace the candles. We have unscented ones in the back." A flurry of footsteps went back and forth, and the cinnamon scent around them soon dissipated, though the smell of smoke was replaced soon after initially being extinguished.

"Ty, what are you doing?" Lea's voice sounded hoarse, and she ended the statement with another cough.

"It's okay. I have a plan." The boy fervently hoped that he sounded more confident than he felt.

Several minutes later, the chanting resumed, louder than before.

"Wait!" The boy cried out.

The chanting paused. The cultists were willing to hear him out now. Good. That much at least had worked.

"There's something else you guys should know about Alcor. He doesn't like human sacrifices, _especially _child sacrifices. So sacrificing us for his benefit is a bad idea, okay? It's not too late to… to go get a bunny or something… and sacrifice that instead? That'd work out better for… well, for all of us, really. Just trust me."

A few moments passed as utter silence filled the room. The boy's heart felt like it would jump out of his chest if he had to wait any longer for their response. It was true, though, everything he had said was true, right out of the college-level demonology textbook that the school librarian had been so impressed by him reading. He was clearly the demonology expert in the room, not these idiotic cultists… so they should listen to him, right...?

Finally, he got his response… in the form of widespread laughter.

"Nice try, kid."

And the chanting resumed.

"Fine! Fine, don't listen to me about that, but think about this. Why do you need two sacrifices right off the bat? Wouldn't it be better to just sacrifice one of us right now and use the other when you're making a deal, or for future summonings, or… something?"

"Huh?" Lea murmured.

Their chanting continued, nearly eclipsing the sound of his speech. The boy strained his voice as he vied for the cult's attention.

"So just kill me! Sacrifice me right now, if you really want to, but don't kill my sister, just me!"

"Ty, why are you doing this?"

The boy heard footsteps approaching, then without warning, the bag was yanked off of him. He was in the middle of a summoning circle, candles flickering as brightly and irregularly as the streetlights had been, a throng of blue-hooded figures surrounding him. One cultist stood in front of him, holding a large silver knife inscribed with a number of runes and faintly tinged red, and though he could only make out the barest outline of the face hidden by the hood, he could see the glint in the cultist's eyes.

"Your words have swayed us. You alone shall have the honor of giving your life as sacrifice to our Lord."

Another cultist dragged his sister, still covered by a bag, outside of the circle, smudging one or two of the chalk outlines in the process. The bag squirmed violently, and he could hear his sister screeching, "NO! TY!" even as the chanting continued.

And then, with a single swift motion, the knife was plunged into his chest.

A sharp pain in his abdomen made it difficult for the boy to focus on anything else. The world grew light and fuzzy, the outlines of the shapes around him dimming and blurring. There was blood, so much blood, running down his body onto the concrete floor.

As the world faded away and the cultist withdrew their knife triumphantly, the boy mumbled a few final words.

"Lea, I'm sorry…"

And then everything was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

Everything was white, white and bright, the light so great that it was painful to look at.

So this was it, then.

Ty wasn't sure what he had expected to come next, but after all the hype, a world filled with dull light seemed a bit anticlimactic.

And were things supposed to hurt this much?

A blotch emerged from the light, a brown blob that slowly dissolved into a shape that the boy knew all too well.

Lea was here, too?

No. No, no, no, no, _no_. That was not part of the deal. It was supposed to be only him, that was what he had bargained for, that was the plan… but then again, it wouldn't be the first of his plans to have gone awry…

"Ty?"

Ty let out a weak groan as he stared at his sister's looming face.

"Ty-Ty, you awake?"

Another, slightly louder groan escaped his lips. The light didn't seem so overpowering now, and he started to notice that the white background surrounding his sister wasn't truly uniform, but had lines that ran across it forming simple geometric patterns, as well as a variety of small and irregularly-shaped bumps and gashes. The light itself was coming from a single source, not the entire area as he had previously thought, but it wasn't the calming round light of the sun, but a great harsh light peeking out from behind his sister's head and glimmering as it reflected off of her sleek ebony hair.

"If you really are up this time, speak to me, ya big dope!"

Between the fog that filled his mind and the pain that filled his body, the only word that Ty could come up with was a slurred "what?"

"Ohmygod ohmygod ohmyGOD!" Lea started punching Ty on the shoulder, and while the hits were doubtlessly intended to be gentle, each impact nonetheless sent a surge of pain through his body.

"Ow. OW! Stop!"

Lea stopped and gave her brother a sheepish grin. "Does that really hurt?"

"…_everything _hurts."

"Sorry." She started twisting a long strand of hair that had eluded the grasp of the thick green rubber band that was currently holding her ponytail in place. "But I was so worried about you! And I just… for a bit I just thought that… that you weren't going to…"

And those were teardrops plopping onto his chest now. At least those didn't hurt nearly as much as the punches.

"…sorry." The boy matched his sister's weak, awkward grin. He looked away from her eyes now, not quite willing to see the span of jumbled-up emotions that they contained, and took in his surroundings. He was on a bed, covered by a thin blanket, on the other end of the room from a large door. Several complicated-looking machines stood next to him, humming and whirring and beeping periodically. There were two chairs (one occupied by a battered blue backpack covered in paint and sparkles) and a number of signs lining the wall, but otherwise the room was by and large lacking in ornamentation.

"'s not your fault." He turned to watch her once again. The girl wiped away her tears, though more soon took their place. "But… don't make me worry like that again, okay?" Ty's own breaths were soft and shallow, but his sister's made up for it, each one loud and huge as if she needed to suck in as much of the stale hospital air as possible in order to stay grounded in the here and now.

The boy laughed, even though each laugh made his chest ache, as he replied, "I'll try not to."

"Good."

Ty pushed himself up a few inches, leaning his head against the top edge of his pillow, trying to reach the same level as his sister. Having her looking down at him, rather than vice versa, was a sensation that he was not terribly familiar with and didn't particularly appreciate. "What… what even _happened_?"

Lea rested her hand upon her chin, her eyes drifting towards one of the beeping machines as she spoke. "Alcor showed up after you passed out, and he… did some flamey thing, and he touched you with his blue fire hands, and then he went over to the hooded guys and…" Her voice trailed off, and she shivered for a moment before continuing. "And then I got help, but… but they said you were dead for seven minutes, like _dead _dead…"

"Yeesh."

The conversation paused for a minute, and the room filled with the sounds of beeping and whirring and two sets of breathing, one quiet, one loud. Ty's eyelids felt heavy, and he struggled to keep them aloft.

Finally, Lea spoke up, her voice stronger and more upbeat than before. "But if you were dead for seven minutes, then that doesn't count as part of your life, right?"

"I… guess?"

"Then you know what that means?"

Ty shook his head gently. "No idea."

"It means that now I'm older than you, bro-bro!"

The boy shut his eyes for a moment. "No. No it doesn't."

"And now I can introduce you to people as my little brother! 'Hi, I'm Lea, and this is my _little brother _Ty!'"

Ty opened his eyes and rested his palm against his pounding head. "No. Absolutely not. That's not how it works, and you know it."

"That's totally how it works." Lea stuck her tongue out.

Ty sighed. "But… I don't get it. It sounds like Alcor did… something to help me. But why would he do that?"

"Stop changing the subject, _baby brother_."

"Knock it off, Lea! I'm trying to be serious here! And I am _not _your baby brother, alright?"

"Sure, whatever you say, kid. Squirt. Young one."

"Lea, something's going on here. A demon _saved my life_! That doesn't make any sense!"

"Speaking of saving lives… I think I have a certain _kid brother _to thank." Lea leaned in and gave her brother a hug, lifting him slightly off the bed and brushing her body against his wound.

"Careful. CAREFUL! Ow!"

"Right. Sorry." She took a step back.

"Now _you're _the one changing the subject."

"But you said it yourself, Ty-Ty! Alcor likes kids, right?"

"Not enough to save their life without asking for anything in return." His mind raced. Was there some way the demon _had _gotten something in return? He didn't remember making a deal, but then again… what if he had mumbled a few words while not quite conscious enough to remember it? What if, without even knowing it, he had signed away… who knows what in exchange for his life?

What if he owed Alcor a debt that he didn't even know how to repay?

He reached a decision.

"Lea. Give me your sketchpad and a pencil."

The girl got the requested items out of her backpack, though not after a good deal of rummaging around within it and spilling various papers and other debris onto the clean tile floor. She handed them to Ty, who opened up the sketchpad and began drawing immediately.

"Whatcha doing, bro-bro?"

He closed his eyes for a moment, fighting off the urge to fall back asleep as he pictured the image he needed in his mind.

His fingers flew across the page, his sketch simple and messy, but good enough to do the trick. He knew the symbols that he needed, he'd seen them a million times in his favorite books.

Circle. Stars. Pine tree…

A look of recognition passed across Lea's face, quickly replaced by a number of other looks, fear and confusion and curiosity.

"Ty… I don't think this is a good idea. Maybe you should just get some more rest. You've been through a lot…"

His only response was a curt "I need answers."

"O…kay…"

Finally it was done. Well, as done as it was going to be. There were probably a few things missing- no, definitely a few things missing given his current lack of supplies, but probably even more than he realized- but he didn't know what exactly they were without consulting one of the manuals.

Maybe Lea was right. Maybe now was not the time for this. Maybe he should just go to sleep, and maybe try again when he could do things properly, make sure every last detail was right…

No. He needed to know why, and he needed to know _now_, before anything else could go awry.

"Hey, can I have some candy?"

Lea gave him a sideways glance. "I… don't think so."

"Come on. Just one packet of Smile Dip? Surely you can spare that when you got so much."

She frowned. "Actually… I don't have all that Smile Dip any more. It must have fallen out somewhere, but I didn't exactly have time to go looking for it."

"You…" Ty burst out into laughter that rang across the room. "After all that… _all that_, and you didn't even get to keep the Smile Dip?"

"Nope. I guess you were right- that trip was a bad idea after all."

"Oh, so _that's _what made you realize it? Not the whole almost dying part, but you losing your Smile Dip?"

Lea whacked him on the shoulder with the empty sleeve of what he now recognized was his own hoodie, which was several sizes too big for the petite girl.

"Hey, I was right about that, and I'll be right about this too. I know you've got some candy hiding in that backpack. Just one piece, that's all I'm asking."

Lea huffed and threw a Sand Pop at him, which bounced off his forehead and onto the sketchpad.

He winced as he nudged the candy into the center of his hastily-drawn circle. "I'm gonna get back at you for that, just you wait."

"Course you will."

Now, what was the incantation? Ty couldn't quite remember… but he could at least string some of the words together and hope for the best.

"Te invoke, stella splendida! Dico tuum nomen: Alcor!"

He watched and waiting, his eyes focused on the page.

Were the circle's lines glowing with demonic magic, or was it just an illusion caused by the harsh fluorescent lighting?

Time ticked by.

After several minutes, Ty tried again, using words that were less traditional but at least more comprehensible. "Alcor, come here! I want to talk to you, to make a deal!"

And… nothing.

Ty slumped back against his pillow.

Lea giggled. "Really? That was the worst summoning attempt in the history of summoning."

"Well, you do it, then."

She shook her head energetically and raised up her hands. "Nuh-uh. That's your business. I don't wanna deal with any of that."

"So… I guess Alcor doesn't want to see me, huh?"

"Not when you barely even do anything to try. I thought you knew about demony stuff more than that, Ty-Ty! No wonder you suck at doing summonings so much!"

Ty smirked. "Really? Because it sounds like the last one worked pretty well."

"Wait…" It took Lea a moment to connect the dots. "…are you _really _going to go there?"

"Hey, I'll take what I can get, okay?"

The two shared a moment of soft, uncertain laughter before Ty closed his eyes and began to give in to his body's urgent requests for rest. There was still more to do, more to say, more to learn… but for now, he was willing to put all of that on hold.


	3. Chapter 3

A bell chimed softly as Ty opened the door. He couldn't help but grin as he took in the familiar sight around him of tall, wide shelves lined with hundreds of books, books that were organized (more or less) so that he could come across just the sort of thing that he was looking for. (Unlike his own room; he still hadn't found that copy of _Transcend_ that the library had been sending him increasingly aggressive notices about over the last few weeks.)

Rather than bolting immediately towards the shelves to examine their contents and decide on a few new acquisitions, however, Ty strolled over to the check-out counter.

The teenage girl standing there, who had been in the middle of blowing a rather impressive bubble of chewing gum, burst the bubble and inadvertently swallowed the gum, hacking as she choked on it for several seconds before finally managing to compose herself enough to speak.

"Hey, man. Long time no see. Where've you been?" Her voice was light, but as her dark eyes gazed at his, she began chewing at a loose bit of skin on her lips.

The boy laughed hollowly. "It's a long story."

The girl broke eye contact and turned her head back and forth quickly to glance around the empty store. "_Gee whiz_, looks like there's no other customers here right now! Who'd a thunk?" She drummed her fingers against the desk and looked back at him. "Spill."

"Well. Um. About that." Ty scratched the back of his neck. "I was..."

She tilted her head to one side. "Was what?"

"...was sort of in the hospital." He blurted out the words in one fell swoop, hoping that saying them quickly would somehow diminish their impact.

The girl's eyes widened, and she ceased absentmindedly nibbling at her lips and instead sank her teeth into them before wincing. "_Shit_. I mean, uh..." She glanced around the still-empty once again before leaning forward and slightly lowering her voice. "Holy shit, what happened? You okay?"

"Well, there was this cult, and they tried to kill me, but I'm fine now... so... Michelle, what have _you_ been up to lately?"

Michelle burst into laughter, shaking her head as her laughs died down. "Man, Ty, how did you manage that one?"

"It wasn't my fault, I swear! Lea was the one who wanted to sneak out in the first place!"

"Okay. Whatever. Anyway. I know what'll cheer you up!"

As the girl ducked behind the counter, Ty considered protesting, telling her that he didn't need to be comforted, really, but he soon thought better of it.

Michelle stood up and slammed a thick book onto the counter. "That new Wendy Corduroy book just came out, and I saved a copy for ya!"

Ty smiled. "Alright, cool. What do I owe ya this time?" He began rummaging through the deep pockets of his hoodie, his hands brushing against keys and tissues and pieces of lint before finally retrieving a few crumpled bills.

"Nuh-uh. My treat."

"No, don't- you can't-" Even as he tried to string together a few words of protest, the boy slid the dollar bills back into his pockets.

"Too bad. You're getting it. That's happening."

"But-"

"Under three conditions." She held up a single tawny finger. "One. You lend it to me when you've read it. I want to learn about the life of that hot-ass chick almost as much as you do."

"You know that's not why-"

"Sure, sure. _You're_ a pure innocent child who just wants to know stuff for the hell of it. But that's you. That's not _me_." Michelle waggled her eyebrows at him and snorted when he buried his face in his hand.

"Fine, fine." He shook his head, which just made her grin.

"Two." She held up a second finger. "The minute you turn sixteen, you need a job, you're working here. Don't even pretend you don't want that employee discount."

"Did you run that by Joe?"

She snorted. "If Joe's not fine with you of all people helping out around here, he's even more of a goddamn idiot than I thought."

"O...kay then. And what's the third thing?"

"Next time you get into some shit like that, _call me _so I know what's up_,_ will ya?" Michelle rolled up a flyer and swatted him on the forehead repeatedly as she continued speaking. "I was actually starting to worry about you, you dweeb!"

"Alright! Alright! Fine! Sorry!" Ty flinched, slouching down with every hit until he was no taller than the short girl behind the counter, and only then did she set down the flyer, which remained curved and bent even when freed from her grasp.

"So do we have a deal?"

"Yeah, yeah."

Michelle picked up the book and handed it to Ty, who tucked it under his arm. "You gonna stick around and read it, then? That couch in the corner is awful comfy..."

"That desperate for the company?" Ty smirked.

Michelle shrugged. "Kind of, yeah. This place has been hella boring without you, dude. Just tell me whether it's good so far when you head out."

"Sure thing." Ty nodded and headed for the couch which Michelle had mentioned, a large one which may have been white at one point in the distant past but was now covered in several shades of brown, with cushions that bore the imprints of readers long gone. He lay down on the couch, dislodging a few pebbles and clumps of mud from his sneakers as he put his feet up, and settled into his usual reading position, maneuvering his way into the softer spots of the worn-down cushions.

The only sounds in the room were those of flipping pages (both from him and from Michelle, who always seemed to have a magazine or graphic novel stashed under the counter) and the steady hum of the fluorescent lights.

Several chapters went by. Ty already knew half of what the book was telling him about Wendy Corduroy's early life, but the author had a way with words that made even the stories he'd read several times before engaging once more.

He was finally disrupted from his reverie by the chime of a bell and heavy footsteps.

"Welcome to Rogers &amp; Tyler! Is there anything I can help you with today, sir?"

Ty blinked and looked up from his book for a moment. He could count the times that Michelle had used that cheery voice- in ways that weren't sarcastic or mocking- on one hand. Who was it that had prompted Michelle to sound so... so... professional?

The boy was curious, but he was facing the wrong way to see who had entered the store. The couch cushions had engulfed his frame as he read, and he was in the middle of a particularly amusing anecdote about Wendy's fathers, one that he had never heard before.

Ty sighed and returned to the text in front of him, tuning out the conversation going on behind his back as he read. He would just have to ask Michelle about it later.

He grinned as he kept reading; Wendy's fathers really were quite the characters...

"Is that the Wendy Corduroy biography that just came out?"

In his surprise, Ty closed the book while his fingers were still holding onto the page that he had been reading, then waved his hand around in a desperate attempt to relieve the pain of his squished fingers. "Yeah! Yeah, it is..."

The boy sat up, grimacing as his back was forced to escape the death grip of the cushions, and took in the figure that had spoken to him.

He understood at a glance why Michelle had become so formal upon seeing him. The young man in front of him was... well, for starters, he was white, to the point of his skin being a sickly sort of pale. Though his hair was as dark as Ty's own, it was straight and sleek, and he wore a perfectly-unwrinkled pastel yellow polo shirt with a golden circular locket that dangled over the collar.

"No chance I could get it from you, is there? It seems that that's the last copy for sale here, and I've been dying to read it."

Ty shook his head, getting several strands of tightly-curled hair in his face in the process. "Nope, it's all mine. Sorry."

"That's too bad." The man took a seat next to Ty, seeming not to notice when the boy inched away slightly. "You aren't just reading it because you like looking at Wendy, are you?"

Ty buried his face in his hands again. "No, it's not like that! I'm actually interested in her life, and how she got involved with... you know..." He trailed off as he suddenly recalled that admitting an interest in the darker side of magic to a total stranger was _probably_ not the best idea.

"I know." The man looked Ty in the eyes and smiled. His eyes were as black as his hair, a stark contrast to his alabaster skin. "I'm actually working on a thesis about how people have viewed the demon Kushiel over the years. It's a shame that the field has such a bad reputation; the history of demons can be downright fascinating."

"Y-yeah." Ty turned away and caught a glimpse of the store's lone wall clock, which appeared to be actually working for once. How had it gotten so late so fast?

"I'm sorry, am I bothering you? I was just curious about the motives of one so young purchasing such an arcane book."

"I'm not that young." Ty murmured, fixing his gaze upon a pile of books that had fallen from a shelf into a disheveled heap.

"Oh? Well... would you by any chance be interested in attending a..." The man waved his hand around in the air. "...demonology discussion group? Some friends and I are having a meeting this Friday night, actually. It'd be nice to have some fresh blood in there; it seems like the group just keeps getting smaller as people graduate." He sighed and shook his head dejectedly.

"Like a study group?"

"More informal than that, but we've taken a lot of the same classes- I mean, it's hard to find coursework about that even at the collegiate level, so we've had to do our own sort of thing-" The man's face flushed, finally filling his cheeks with some much-needed color. "-we're a nice bunch, really, but I would definitely understand if you didn't want to come, I do hope I'm explaining this well enough..."

Ty shrugged. "Hey, I'll try it out. Not like I've got anything else going on."

He grinned widely. "Great! Here, let me just write down my address for you, and my phone number just in case anything goes wrong..." The young man set down the leather briefcase that he had been holding on the ground and began fiddling with its lock.

"Hey. Before you do that. One other thing I probably should know."

He looked up. "What?"

"You never actually introduced yourself to me. So, who _are_ you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry! My name is Casper, Casper Fitzsimmons. History major at Occidental." The young man extended his hand.

"And I'm Ty. Ty Wilson."

Shivers ran down Ty's spine as he shook Casper's cold, pale hand.


End file.
